Grandpop’s Putz

Personal 2 Minutes

Note: None of these pictures are Grandpop’s putz–I have none of those. These are from Roadside America in Shartlesville, PA. Roadside America is a miniature model town.

One of my favorite traditions of Christmases past, was my Grandpop’s putz.  (A Christmas putz refers to a miniature village usually surrounding the Nativity scene.)The day after Thanksgiving, Grandpop commandeered their sitting room and began the building.  Whenever we visited before Christmas, it would be covered in tarps—shrouded in secrecy—which of course helped the excitement build till Christmas Day.  We couldn’t wait to see it! 

Grandpop started with a large wooden slab covered with green felt.  From there he built mountains, tunnels, and forests on several different levels.  And from there, he simply created an entire town!  He painstakingly made buildings—stores, churches, and homes—and they had lights inside!  There were street lights and street signs, stop signs and bus stops.  And he hand-carved the people in the town too.  There were little gardens, bushes and even a creek or two.  And the TRAINS!!!  He had at least 6 different train sets on the putz and on the uppermost level was a small cable car—which circled their Christmas tree…the most gosh awful aluminum thing I’d ever seen…but Grandma loved it. And in it’s place of honor was a hand carved Nativity set, brought by Grandpop’s parents from Austria.

Everything was electrically connected to a large control box that only Grandpop could operate.  We’d spend hours walking around the putz, trying to see everything!  The people, the details on the buildings…it was all meticulous!  I don’t think I ever appreciated just how much time and effort he put into his putz.

When our family moved into a larger home, my dad created his own putz.  Dad’s lacked the handcrafted elements that his dad’s had and he purchased the figurines and trees.  But his buildings were spectacular!  Our putz was in our basement—mom refused to surrender our living room—so no Christmas tree on ours.  And Mom refused to allow the Nativity set into the basement. My little brother helped –mostly with the trains—while he and Dad sampled the egg nog Mom kept in the basement fridge.

When my Grandpop passed, my dad and my uncle split the train sets and my aunt took the rest.  Then when my father passed, my brother took it all.  He has never set up a putz. Sigh…

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Published by pat frederick

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168 thoughts on “Grandpop’s Putz”

    1. Morning GA!
      Grandpa was a carpenter by trade and he passed that along to my Dad. Dad’s workshop was amazing! It’s filled with every tool you can think of! He helped my build my drysink.
      Now my son is the woodworker…the things he’s built in their new home!! A gorgeous cherry dining room table–a sofa table, a window seat under a curved bay window. I am in awe of his talent!

      Liked by 3 people

        1. ME TOO!!!
          wow…some of the pics when i searched men in flannel shirts look like soy boys with their gelled up hair drinking mocha crapachinos…
          best i could do

          Liked by 1 person

  3. Morning All!
    first round of storms are over…I am going to see if I can get anything off the deck later this morning. It’s still warmer–about 35*, but the temps will drop like a stone after lunch with round 2 of this mess coming.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Glad to see you made it thru the first batch….still -9 here and windy but nowhere near what it was before. LM didn’t try to come inside – he just wanted water. That plastic container freezes so fast…I found a single-serving thermal soup container that was HBs and am using that for his water now. Hopefully, it won’t freeze in 5 minutes!

      Liked by 1 person

    2. Oh, and that Xmas putz! I had never heard that phrase before….so I had to check it out. Your Grandpop was great fun, I’ll bet!!! Really cool!

      EXCERPT: “Here at the Schwenkfelder Library & Heritage Center we casually talk about the Christmas putz, mentioning it to visitors (“The putz is on the first floor”) and perhaps oblivious to whether they know what it is. It’s a term we take for granted here, but it definitely requires explanation to many outsiders. I grew up in a Pennsylvania Dutch family from Robesonia in western Berks County, and I had never heard of the word putz—then again, I don’t think I ever heard of the Belsnickle, either!

      So, then, what is a putz? Perhaps more familiar to many individuals are the terms “Christmas garden” or “Christmas yard.” Over the past few years there’s been a resurgence of interest in the antique and vintage miniature buildings, animals, people and scenery pieces that were commonly used in putzes, and a result, the word has become more associated with these tiny worlds that people create under their trees, on tables, or on mantelpieces. How do the putzes of today, however, compare to those of a hundred years ago? Or two hundred years ago?”

      https://padutchcompanion.com/2020/12/18/history-of-the-christmas-putz/

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Grandpop came from Austria and they typically revolved around the Nativity scene and soon blossomed out from there.
        his was true craftsmanship!

        the word itself rhymes with puts (he puts the books back) and not cuts (he cuts the cake)

        Liked by 1 person

  5. she has a future in PA…I really wanted her to win!

    Liked by 1 person

  7. Liked by 1 person

  13. Like

  16. 1 week we learn that the fbi is illegally paying big tech to censor us online with our tax dollars and naturally the next week 18 Republican Senators vote to give the FBI billions of dollars and a brand new $350 million dollar facility 🤡
    — Hodgetwins (@hodgetwins) December 22, 2022

    Liked by 1 person

    1. What they want ultimately is the land! Whatever they have to do to drive people into the cities and the high rises. That is the main goal – let the government “provide” for you instead of providing for yourself. Once you are 100% dependent and have nowhere else to go…game over! I know – preaching to the choir!

      Liked by 1 person

  32. sliding down…just came back in from trying to get some of the thick ice residue from last week’s storm off my deck…it’s a cold 35* with rain, but it’s made a lot of the ice turn to slush so i was able to get a bunch off…it’s supposed to drop like a stone and then 2-4 inches of snow today…now to warm up, dry off and catch up!

    Liked by 1 person

        1. you know when I was a child–I loved hats! (my kid still does)…I’d put anything on my head! there is a picture floating around of me wearing my rubber pants (gosh, remember those?) on my head
          then in my early twenties i got a perm and my hair has been dry ever since and hats and hoods make my hair so static-y

          Liked by 1 person

          1. I was never into hats at all. HB loved, loved, loved them when she was little, starting at around 9 months – I posted some pics of her long ago in some of her hats!

            My hair is soooo straight, also very dry, and kind of coarse, and a hat just flattened it down – I looked ridiculous! Now I wear a baseball cap most of the time since I quit fussing with my hair. Of course, that all goes out the window in the winter! Wool stocking cap time!

            Liked by 1 person

  34. from tcth
    Donald J. Trump
    TRUTH President Trump
    @realDonaldTrump

    SO, WE CAUGHT THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES, THROUGH THE USE OF THE FBI & OTHER AGENCIES, CONCLUSIVELY & IRREFUTABLY CHEATING ON THE 2020 Presidential Election, AND COMPLETELY & ILLEGALLY CHANGING ITS RESULT. THIS WAS ONLY ONE OF MANY FORMS OF CHEATING, BUT FRANKLY, IT WAS A BEAUT! THE FBI HAS NO EXCUSE, THEY WERE CAUGHT COLD, BUT THIS MUST NOT BECOME A COLD CASE. NOW WHAT? HONEST & BRAVE PROSECUTORS & JUDGES MUST STEP UP & CLEAN OUT THIS CANCER WHICH IS DESTROYING OUR ONCE GREAT COUNTRY!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. at least 17%…lol

      SunnyFlower5
      December 23, 2022 8:40 am

      TRUTH President Trump
      @realDonaldTrump

      The FBI used Twitter and Facebook to bludgeon the 2020 Election to Biden. Nothing Negative could be said about him, especially as it related to Hunter’s Laptop From Hell, and ONLY Negative could be said about me. They were illegally after “Trump” at a level of ferocity, hate and yes, desperation, that has never been seen in our Country before. Other Media companies were involved also. The change in the Election was Complete & Total, with Millions of votes switched, at least 17%. TRUMP WON, BIG!

      Liked by 1 person

    1. Oh, man….that brought to mind one of my last winter’s living on Ringwood when I still had Z and Spirit with me. Ice storm – I literally had to hang onto the entire fence-line, which was itself encased in ice, and pull myself up to the barn to take care of him.

      I had a large water tank with a tank de-icer in it with one outdoor 2-plug outlet there. I ran heavy-duty extension cords, nailed up along the outside of the bottom board of the fence, to the barn since I had no power up there. The top plug was normally dedicated to the hot wire but I unplugged it in the winter for the de-icer. I rolled up the hose and kept it in the water tank thru the winter – when it was bad enough that I had to shut Z in the barn, I would unroll the hose and pull it up to the barn to give him water. If it was just Spirit, I carried warm water in a plant water can from the house.

      Spirit had a nice sized fenced in area on the exterior of the barn, with a 4′ wide run-in to the barn. Of course, I couldn’t afford to pay to put up a fence but Tom told me about something that ended up working beautifully. Gravel pits have these long conveyor belts to move the rocks that consist of canvas-covered 4′ X 4′ rebar panels. They often have to change these out and they will either give them away or only charge a few $$$’s. I made her entire pen from those panels.

      Liked by 1 person

              1. don’t downplay your gifts Filly!!
                plenty of people don’t have a lot of money…that doesn’t mean they are resourceful or creative.
                you never give yourself enough credit!!

                Liked by 1 person

              2. Yeah, I know – but still….I’m still trying to figure out why and how I manage to piss off everybody and their brother and I’ve really always been hesitant to take credit, to sound like I’m bragging or something….underneath this hard exterior is a very insecure person…

                Liked by 1 person

              4. Been that way since I was a toddler – I was very shy for the most part. And, being the youngest of 3 and the tiniest, I got overlooked a lot. LOL – but that also bothered me, even when it came to a wuppin’ with the bull whip while Sis and Bro were hanging their butts over the end of the bull chute. I was 4, I think, they were 5 and 6.

                I went crying to Mom that I wanted a spanking, too! She came running out of the BR in the trailer when she heard the screaming, pulling up her pants and zipping them up as she ran – she slowed down long enough to pop me on the butt a time or two. That was good enough for me! ROFL

                Liked by 1 person

        2. That barn was kind of a mess when I moved there. It was a really old one, with a lot of gaps, boards coming lose, etc. so I had to put in some real work on that. Luckily, the pasture was fenced…otherwise.. I don’t even want to think of it – it was about 2-3 acres.

          The barn had a run-in on the end towards the house, with a hay mow inside….that I had to nail back together. The dirt floor in there was awful, with dirt piled up on one side, so I had to level that out a little bit at least – in a rain storm, it became a wading pool but at least it was on the opposite side of the hay mow. Z became quite adept at hopping over the puddle of water to get to the hay!

          Thankfully, there was already a door between that and the stall I created for Z. The floor in the opposite enclosed end was in about the same condition but I wasn’t up for digging that up. Pallet anyone? I completely covered the majority of the space with pallets so I had a place to store hay, feed, meds, blankets, etc., etc. I had 2 large rubber trash cans for those and the feed – I could put 2 – 50 lb bags of feed in it.

          Then I used 2 tube gates to create a “stall” for Z inside the barn. There was a platform along the back of the open hangover between the stall and Spirits’ shelter where I kept hay and my groom kit. It worked very well for 7 years!

          Liked by 1 person

  39. counties in texas failed their 2020 vote audit– imo
    entire article

    The Texas Secretary of State office has released the final part of its 2020 general election audit for Collin, Dallas, Harris and Tarrant counties, with the most serious issues reportedly occurring in Harris, the state’s most populous county.

    The report released Monday states Texas voters overall can have a “very high level of confidence in the accuracy of the outcome of Texas elections” when state election code and local procedures are followed.

    However, the audit found Dallas County had two large problems including “phantom voters,” according to the Epoch Times.

    Secretary of State John Scott ordered the full forensic audit last year amid concerns about voter fraud. It was designed to represent the two largest Democrat-controlled and GOP-controlled counties, Dallas and Harris and Collin and Tarrant, respectively, according to the report.

    In Harris County, the problems were severe enough that the Secretary of State’s office notified the county of the audit’s preliminary findings ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, the 359-page report also shows.

    The audit included machines and software, security, voter registration, provisional voting, mail-in voting, chain of custody and records management, the Epoch Times also reports.

    In Harris County, the audit showed “very serious issues in the handling of electronic media.”

    At least 14 mobile ballot boxes did not have proper chain of custody records for 184,999 ballots. 

    In addition, the county failed to provide documentation for the creation of 17 mobile ballot boxes connected to 124,630 cast vote records. And tally audit logs for over two dozen early-polling places and eight Election Day polling locations did not match the electronic records, also according to the Epoch Times. 

    Another issue involved the storage of voting records. The audit counted 534 boxes warehoused but was unable to confirm whether this was all of the records.

    Dallas County’s two biggest issues were related to problems with electronic poll books and losing experienced staff members.

    The county’s electronic equipment created at least 188 “phantom voters,” according to the report. And it misplaced 318 provisional votes that were discovered in February 2021. In addition, 21 mail-in ballots were credited to voters, but their sealed, unopened ballots were discovered during the audit.

    https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/texas-2020-election-audit-find-serious-issues-harris-county-phantom

    Liked by 1 person

        1. Oh, yeah….mine are moving up in the sunshine – now at -3. I’m seeing an occasional wind gust with snow blowing onto my patio a little bit. I can see the flakes sparkling in the sun…kind of pretty actually but I can do without that kind of pretty on my patio!

          Liked by 1 person

  41. “Grand Jury Request Goes Through In Florida: “They Won’t Be Able to Hide Anything”
    December 23, 2022 • by The Vigilant Fox
    “Everything they did, everything they knew about, will be transparent.”

    EXCERPT: “Nine days after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said, in a press release, that he would be asking the State Supreme Court to convene a Grand Jury to investigate “any and all wrongdoing” with respect to the Covid-19 injections, he, extraordinarily, received approval on Thursday (12/22/22) for that request. You can find that ruling here (only works on desktop). Thanks to Dr. Henry Ealy for the link.”
    —————
    “As we recall from Governor DeSantis’ mRNA accountability hearing, he and Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo made three major announcements.”

    More/video: https://dailyclout.io/grand-jury-request-goes-through-in-florida-they-wont-be-able-to-hide-anything/

    Liked by 1 person

    1. okay…getting out my tinfoil hat…

      I think the deepstate knows the jig is up–too many redpilled people right now…about the cv injections…it’s gonna come out. so they are gaming the system by allowing FLORIDA to do it! WHY florida you ask? because it gives ron the recuser a solid platform to go against REALPOTUS…cv is big–people want answers…IF ron provides them, it cements his following…

      Like

      1. In this case? I don’t think even I need a tinfoil cap for this one – I can see them doing that, absolutely! IMO, we should look at ALL of these legal cases keeping ONE thought it mind – it is deeply, widely and thoroughly corrupt, top-to-bottom! There are very few, like Turley and, on some issues, Dershowitz who stand by the Constitution.

        Like

  42. “This Christmas, Understand and Appreciate that President Trump is our Braveheart.”
    December 22, 2022
    By Wayne Allyn Root

    EXCERPT: “I’ve said it before, let me say it again. History repeats, and those who fail to study history are destined to fail. I was working out in my gym the other day, watching one of my favorite movies of all-time, Braveheart. But this was the first time I watched Braveheart while experiencing this all-out, over-the-top, DC Swamp, Deep State, globalist, communist and media attack against President Trump.

    I realized that we are watching history repeat. Braveheart is the story of America today- with the middle class fighting for its very survival…and one man standing in the way…Donald J. Trump.

    The plot of Braveheart is the story of Scotland’s 13th century battle for freedom and self-determination against the powerful British empire. It’s the same battle America’s middle class is fighting today against the DC Swamp, Deep State and globalist organizations like the United Nations, World Economic Forum and Open Society Foundation. They’re all out to destroy America, American exceptionalism, capitalism and the great American middle class. They want one world government. They want us all to be serfs and slaves.

    The hero of Braveheart is Sir William Wallace, a passionate, enthusiastic, heroic, and principled leader and warrior. Wallace didn’t fight for personal gain. He fought only to achieve freedom for his people and he was willing to die for that cause.

    President Donald J. Trump is today’s embodiment of Sir William Wallace.”

    https://rootforamerica.com/president-trump-is-our-braveheart/

    Liked by 1 person

    1. “Braveheart is like today’s America in one other important way. For hundreds of years the noblemen of Scotland sold out their own people for their own personal gain—titles of royalty, land, and fancy estates. The noblemen of Braveheart are embodied today by establishment GOP leaders in Washington, D.C.

      History repeats. It’s all happening today…in America. Trump is the only thing standing between us and them. Between freedom and serfdom.

      They only attack Trump. Not DeSantis. Not any other Republican. Just Trump. What does that tell you?”

      Liked by 2 people

  43. more details about Arizona…this is a bad sign i think

    Sir Francis Bacon
    December 23, 2022 11:39 am

    Chain of Custody

    The minute, I knew the trial was a fix. No-one wanted to see or know who the two Maricopa County OBSERVERS are.

    Two Maricopa County, Arizona people were sent to Runbeck as OBSERVERS. Reportedly to watch Runbeck count the 295,000 ballots per Director Scott Jarrett. In short, the ballots were counted by Runbeck with unidentified and unquestioned Maricopa County people selected by Scott Jarrett. Who were these Maricopa County OBSERVERS and why were they not called by someone to testify, since their existence was not revealed until late in the second day of the trial, Apparently behind closed doors at Runbeck with security provided by government CICS contractors.

    The Judge, the prosecutors and defendant attorneys at trial could have called these mystery people in to validate Scott Jarrett’s account.  Were these Maricopa OBSERVERS FBI people?

    —

    HEATHER HONEY: “I understand your question, and I would say that Somebody, a person, it’s my understanding the recorder is responsible for maintaining the Chain of custody, somebody made the decision NOT to do it and I would say that they made that decision knowing what the law was in Arizona.”

    Heather Honey, Chain of custody expert on BOTH Runbeck and Maricopa County: “They weren’t following the legal requirements for chain of custody”. This should have included the two Maricopa County OBSERVERS.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/12/werent-following-legal-requirements-chain-custody-expert-kari-lake-trial-heather-honey-destroys-maricopas-defense/

    —

    Jan Bryant: No, all the high speed scanning happens at Runbeck. So, those ballots go to Runbeck. As far as I know, there were no observers there. I don’t know. I never got called to work at Runbeck. That’s all I can tell you.

    https://cleverjourneys.com/2021/06/13/why-did-ballots-scanned-offsite-continue-to-be-delivered-to-maricopa-elections-center-after-voting-ended/
    Last edited 27 minutes ago by Sir Francis Bacon

    Like

          1. i think it was reported yesterday they each get 20 minutes…kari lake’s team said they would only need 15…hobbs team said they needed the 20.
            judge then told kari her team would then be allowed 5 minutes rebuttal

            Liked by 1 person

  45. of course they’re proxy voting! if they do not RESIDE in DC a majority of the time, then cut their salaries…after all they are not maintaining 2 residences as they claim!!!

    Sherri Young
    December 23, 2022 1:08 pm

    The disgusting omnibus bill is in the House. Right now, they are wrapping up a vote on a motion to adjourn (thus short-circuiting a vote to pass the omnibus).

    We are aware that this bill was timed to come to a vote at a time that interfered with the ability of the members of the legislative branch to leave DC for the Christmas holidays. However watching this vote, you can see that most of the votes being cast are proxy votes.

    There are plenty of Republican proxy votes to adjourn. What is just too “in your face” is that the majority of the people voting against adjournment (Democrats) are voting by proxy. They are not in DC. They have already left town but voting against adjournment.

    Clown show. Dangerous, disgusting, joke of a clown show.

    You can watch the clown show live on C-SPAN.

    https://www.c-span.org/video/?525045-2/house-vote-17-trillion-omnibus-spending-bill-avert-government-shutdown&live

    Liked by 1 person

  46. Liked by 1 person

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